spinach
[spin-ich]
noun
a plant, Spinacia oleracea, cultivated for its edible, crinkly or flat leaves.
the leaves.
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Nearby words
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- spinal,
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Origin of spinach
1520–30; < Middle French espinache, espinage < Old Spanish espinaca, alteration of Arabic isfānākh, perhaps < Persian
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for spinach
spinach
noun
Word Origin for spinach
C16: from Old French espinache, from Old Spanish espinaca, from Arabic isfānākh, from Persian
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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spinach
c.1400, from Anglo-French spinache, Old French espinache (Modern French épinard), from Old Provençal espinarc, which perhaps is via Catalan espinac, from Andalusian Arabic isbinakh, from Arabic isbanakh, from Persian aspanakh "spinach." But OED is not convinced the Middle Eastern words are native, and based on the plethora of Romanic forms pronounces the origin "doubtful." Old folk etymology connected the word with Latin spina (see spine) or with Medieval Latin Hispanicum olus. For pronunciation, see cabbage. In 1930s colloquial American English, it had a sense of "nonsense, rubbish," based on a famous "New Yorker" cartoon of Dec. 8, 1928.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper